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Since he sold it to me, the description was taken down, so I don't have all the specs on steel. I will try to find them. I absolutely love the knife, and the main reason I wanted to get involved in the forums is so I could ask how to properly care for it and sharpen it.

Welcome! I'm certainly no expert, but that won't stop me from attempting to answer your questions.

Carters are great! Your knife will have a letter (either S or W) stamped on it. W is for "white steel" and S is for "blue Super steel". My guess is W since he recently stopped using blue steel. In either case, your knife is stainless steel-clad carbon, so the sharp edge will rust if neglected, but it will develop some patina. That's fine and even desirable. You'll want to clean and dry it after each use. To sharpen, you'll want to get one or two japanese water stones and a strop. Some of the KKF vendors carry good options. Be careful, that's another addiction waiting to happen. A good starter is King 1000/6000.

Welcome! I'm certainly no expert, but that won't stop me from attempting to answer your questions.

Carters are great! Your knife will have a letter (either S or W) stamped on it. W is for "white steel" and S is for "blue Super steel". My guess is W since he recently stopped using blue steel. In either case, your knife is stainless steel-clad carbon, so the sharp edge will rust if neglected, but it will develop some patina. That's fine and even desirable. You'll want to clean and dry it after each use. To sharpen, you'll want to get one or two japanese water stones and a strop. Some of the KKF vendors carry good options. Be careful, that's another addiction waiting to happen. A good starter is King 1000/6000.

Enjoy the journey!

Regards,

Mark

Thanks, I couldn't find the stamp, but here was the description that was emailed to me:

In regards to the water stones, yup...that one got me a little over a week ago. I watched some video's from Jeff at CKTG. I then saw that SLT offered a Shun model for $79.00, 1000/6000 grit (plus I get a 15% student discount), so I picked up these:

I haven't touched the Carter with them, and don't plan on it until I have plenty of experience, but I did spend some time on a 10-year old crappy generic kitchen knife, as well as my Mercer. I was able to do quite well with the Mercer, and put the 7-inch Shun on it after a while (after all they are Shun stones).

I think my biggest problem was that I bought the guides as well for $15. To me it actually hindered things, after about 15 minutes I took them off. I found myself relying too much on them and the knives scratching on the stone when came off the endge (Shun's fake damascus is ruined on one side...oh well). It felt much more comfortable without them, but who knows how good I was doing.

Another problem with the guides, is that the grips put some sort of mark down the side of the knife on each side where it gripped. Haven't been able to remove it. I'll try and get a good pic and post it.

Interesting. I guess Murray no longer stamps his knives W or S (or H?) since he only uses white steel these days. I'm not familiar with the Shun stone, but I'd be surprised if it weren't a good starter stone. Yup, ditch the guides. Have fun!